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Mevani-Khalid Mumbai Event Cancelled; FIR Filed, Students Detained

Police allegedly used force to detain students protesting against attempts to cancel the All India Students’ Summit.

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India
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Student attendees and organisers of the All India Students’ Summit 2018 were detained amid chaos that followed the cancellation of the Mumbai event where Jignesh Mevani and Umar Khalid were scheduled to speak.

The newly appointed Gujarat MLA, Mevani, and JNU student leader, Khalid, were earlier booked under section 153(A), 505 & 117 at Vishrambaug Police Station in Pune, reports ANI.

According to PTI, city resident Akshay Bikkad filed a complaint against Mevani and Khalid for allegedly making "provocative" statements at an event commemorating the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon.

Bikkad, in his complaint, claims that their remarks had the intention of creating ‘disharmony and rift’ between two communities, which is what led to the violence in Bhima Koregaon on 1 January.

The event in question, the ‘Rashtriya Chattra Sammelan’, which is organised annually by Chattra Bharti, comes a day after the Maharashtra bandh. 

Allahabad University student leader Richa Singh, Mevani, Khalid and several other youth leaders were scheduled to speak about various issues at the event, which was to take place on 4 January, between 11am and 6pm, at Bhaidas Hall in Vile Parle.

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“Event Will Be Held No Matter What”

In the wake of the protests that marked Mumbai a day earlier on 3 January, the police had allegedly cancelled the event on the morning it was scheduled to take place. Imposing section 144, the police had reportedly barged into the venue and asked the assembled students to disperse.

They then reportedly used force to detain the students and some of the organisers, who attempted to protest the cancellation of the event by refusing to leave the venue.

According to PTI, those detained included Datta Daghe, the president of Chhatra Bharati, MLC Kapil Patil, Richa Singh, a student leader from Allahabad University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Pradip Narwal.

Sachin Bansode, one of the organisers, told The Quint in the morning of 4 January, that the event will take place, no matter what.

Mevani was on his way to the venue, he said. “No matter the consequences, the event will be held as scheduled, irrespective of the audience and the venue,” he said.

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We have been planning the event for two whole months and it has nothing to do with the Maharashtra protests that took place. So why are the police linking the two and stopping us from holding it?
Sachin Bansode

The reason, said Sagar Bhalerao, another organiser, was due to the controversy surrounding Mevani and Khalid’s alleged role in the Maharashtra riots, reports ANI.

Had booked Bhaidas Hall for All India National Students’ Summit, but now we are being denied entry. Reason police is citing is the news doing the rounds about Umar Khalid and Jignesh Mewani for the past few days.
Sagar Bhalerao told ANI
Police allegedly used force to detain students protesting against attempts to cancel the All India Students’ Summit.
Sagar Bhalerao, one of the organisers of the event. 
(Photo: ANI)
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Various political parties too have condemned the treatment meted out by the police.

“We condemn the incident, it should not have happened. We request the SC to investigate this,” said the BSP, as reported by CNN News18.

NCP legislator Vidya Chavan also criticised the antics of the Maharashtra government and the police in detaining the students ahead of the event.

The Congress too unleashed a scathing attack on the Maharashtra government, saying the "weak" government got "scared" of students, reports PTI.

According to PTI, the Police have barricaded the Bhaidas auditorium and have deployed heavy security around the premises.

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Topics:  Mumbai   Maharashtra   Dalit 

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